The case against 58 people accused of public violence during a looting spree in Durban was postponed to 1 December because their lawyer did not show up in the city's magistrate's court on Wednesday.

Ninety-nine members of the South African Unemployed People's Movement were arrested in July during a looting spree at Shoprite Checkers and Pick n Pay in central Durban.

Forty-one of them were accused of shoplifting and theft, the other 58 charged with public violence. Those accused of shoplifting and theft would appear in court on 30 November.